So...how about that Holiday Crate & Barrel catelog? Anyone else get that today

DH knows me well enough to toss that thing into the recycling bin before I see it if he gets the mail.

For REALS. Lord knows we spend enough money on Christmas-related things that we have no control over. Also, lord knows I spend little enough time able to keep on top of controlling the crap that is already inside my house, before bringing Christmas crap on top.

Happy Birthdays, Kate and LaLizard!

AmyLiz, I think the story about the old man was supposed to show us that networks have always feared the government, failed to allow their artists to make the kind of commentary that they should make, and that governments have always oppressed the arts. I didn't get that at all, 'til the old man said they couldn't do much political humor back in those days, and Danny echoed his, "in those days" with what I think was supposed to be irony. It doesn't work for me, because it ties back into the whole falseness of this impassioned crusade. SNL, which is really Studio Sixty, has not shied away from political humor. Comparing these times (which certainly have bigass flaws of their own) to McCarthy era was dumb. Do a sketch about librarians or poets and I'll buy it, but so far, nobody's coming for the sketch writers.

And I also think we were supposed to get how much our S60 crew identifies with the writers during the McCarthy era, because old guy wrote good to get the attention of the girl on his staff, and we know Matt got started trying to impress Harriet. And there was the writer on that staff that only ever talked to one other guy. It was like an anvil, only worse-- sort of lobbed into a crowd, rather than aiming for a direct target.

Feh.

Still? Matthew Perry is the yum.

Matthew Perry is totally the yum. It's surreal to watch reruns of Friends on TBS for the hour preceding Studio 60, in a fun way.

I got the war veteran stuff as you explained it, but I guess that was my point -- there *was* no point to it other than to outline things we're supposed to know about these characters. And it was done in a monologue rather than through action, which grates.

And the bit about the networks fearing government censure, and blah blah? Yawn. I don't know why it matters so much to me, but as others have said, they're not saving lives. It's TV. It's sketch TV. It's ... art about art. TV about TV. And it's boring me.

Also, I was never a West Wing fan, so this is the first Sorkin show I've ever watched.

You know, stuff happened on the West Wing. Nothing really happens on this show.

From Tom's article

"Once, when we radioed her to please leave the lecturing and hypothesis-making to the mission project team, she responded by forming her robotic arm into an obscene gesture," Banerdt said. "That arm contains a state-of-the-art spectrometer meant to provide crucial mineralogy data."

lori!

I would really like S60 to be cancelled so I can stop watching it. It's not even a love/hate relationship at this point, it's an unhealthy-fascination/hate relationship. And I haven't even seen last night's ep!

Jessica, you've got to start being more responsible with your television intake. You're watching for two now.

What ita says is true, but I really think you do them a disservice by overprotecting them too much -- If they're not exposed to some bad early on, they'll never build up a good immunity and learn to snark properly!

Oh thank god we're on similar pages regarding Studio 60. I should say, Bob and I watch it religiously in the Sorkin sense, in that we're stupefyingly obsessive about a show we despise. It takes about an hour and a half to watch because I have to pause it every minute to laugh hysterically and/or put my face in my hand and let Bob do bits.

Last night when the parents from Columbus said "we felt like bigshots!" I turned to Bob and said, "oh, I get it, that's because they're from Columbus, but they are from Columbus in the Depression! My thought was confirmed when two people from Columbus (1) were incredibly thoughtlessly racist (2) birthed one of the three biggest stars on a broadcast network's flagship show (that airs on Friday, when everyone's watching television!) and didn't know what show he was on (3) thought that a Gypsy Rose Lee reference meant their son was hanging out with strippers (4) didn't know Who's On First, not to mention Abbott & Costello and (5) all of this was because they had a son who was a soldier. Because that makes sense.

But then when Eli Wallach showed up and apparently Bud Friedman had influence over someone who was paid to make people laugh, not to mention booked a comic from the 1980s, I thought "this is some sophisticated narrative where they're showing the events from the POV of a bunch of time travelers from the 30s, 50s and 80s!"

I had to change my mind when one of the most powerful women in Hollywood turned into a Sorkinesque bundle of need in front of her employees; the only black character turned out to have been almost involved in a murder from the ghetto; three women in Hollywood had no idea what a director, writer and executive producer were; a $300K contract was given to a man who couldn't write funny standup, let alone sketches, because he was black and talked about race (hey, look, I found someone who is a funny black comedian in LA, it's not hard at all: [link] the youngest member of a sketch show had his parents show up to a wrap party and then claims in all seriousness that Who's on First will make someone laugh for days and days-- that's when I realized that it's more the case that Sorkin doesn't know anything about people, places, and things.